Music Friday: "Can't Get There from Here"

 As I was driving back to work just now, SiriusXM's Spectrum played "Man on the Moon," and I thought about how often I've listened to R.E.M. over the years. 

I tend to like their earlier work better, so here's a classic cut from the 80s. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I don't get some of the dating rituals that are relatively new to me. 

First, there is the dreaded "promposal." This spectre surely is a result of the rampant social media posts. Why does it have to be a promposal? Can't we just go back to, I don't know, asking a person to prom and leaving it at that? Why does this all have to shared? 

Second, perhaps this trend is just happening in my little spot in the universe, but my seventh grade son is "dating" a gal, as much as 7th graders can date. Anyway, a way that they're showing they're dating is that the girl gave my son one of his hair ties that he wears as a bracelet. From my perspective, the hair tie denotes possession, so my son's girlfriend is kind of marking her territory I guess, saying "He's mine."

ESPN has been covering the NFL draft ad nauseam. One player who I think is get not as much attention as he probably should is Jaylen Waddle. With Waddle closest comp being Tyreek Hill, I suspect someone is going to draft Waddle and do quite well for themselves. 

As much as people want to bitch about the pandemic and the glut of Zoom meetings, the next couple of days I will be interviewing people using Zoom while wearing shorts. That's a happy side effect. 

Trevor Noah has a great bit in one of his stand-up routines about how calling someone a "pussy," meaning that the person is weak, is really dumb. If you think about it, vaginas are incredibly powerful and resilient. First, think about all of the heterosexual men who spend their lives chasing pussy. Second, and this is one of Noah's main points, is that a person or persons came out of vaginas, and they still work. That's impressive. 

Noah's point is that if you want to call someone weak, you should call them a penis. 

So that gets me to over five millions penises who did not get their second shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. What a bunch of dicks. 

Music Friday: "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw?"

 This song has been in my head lately. I don't know why. 

Musing of the Moment: Super League Dead & Spurs' Next Coach

The botched rollout of and communication about the European Super League is one of the more intriguing sports stories in recent times. They announced it on Sunday, and by Tuesday the league was effectively dead.

I look forward to watching a documentary about how this disaster went down. I might say it could be a great 30 for 30 doc, but ESPN rarely covers soccer football topics unless it's a great goal for their top plays on Sportscenter. 

The foreign owners of the Premier League clubs, some of whom are Americans, obviously don't understand the culture of British football. There were protests outside of Chelsea's grounds, and Klopp had a spicy interview related to how Liverpool was treated when they visited Elland Road. And then Leeds tied the Reds in the game. 

Perhaps this failed attempt will make some changes to qualification criteria for the Champions League since the "big six" of the Premier League were obviously interested in generating more revenue. But some of that plotting might have come from the American owners of Liverpool, Arsenal, and ManU, who might have MLB or the NFL as their template for making money. 

The articles about the Super League on The Athletic have been fantastic. 

In other matters with the team I support, Jose Mourinho got sacked. 

It's highly doubtful the interim coach can get the Spurs to qualify for Champions League, but I hope to see a more progressive style of play in their games. They have way too many offensive weapons to park the bus and continue looking lethargic offensively. I'd like to see plans of what they want to do in regard to attacking. 

As much as I liked Mourinho because of his old school, sometimes caustic mentality, I suspect he lost the dressing room by blaming players. 

There is all kinds of speculation about who Tottenham will hire for its next manager. Just hire someone who puts the joy back into the play of Spurs.

Random Notes from a Crank

The other day when I was in a grocery store, I sneezed while having a mask on. That was unpleasant. That had never happened to me before. 

The 43rd President of the US, Dubya, actually published a reasonable opinion piece about immigration in the The Washington Post: "How to Restore Confidence in the American Immigration System." 

I'm quoting a ¶ from it that is notable. 

"Increased legal immigration, focused on employment and skills, is also a choice that both parties should be able to get behind. The United States is better off when talented people bring their ideas and aspirations here. We could also improve our temporary entry program, so that seasonal and other short-term job can be more readily filled by guest workers who help our economy, support their families and then return home."

In the ¶ that follows that one, he talks about eventually bringing illegal immigrants into the fold as long as they meet a set of conditions such as "proof of work history," knowledge of US civics, and background checks, which are sensible requirements. However, he does note a need for "English proficiency." I don't know what the heck that means, but I suspect it belies a "English only" mindset that the United States has never followed. 

If Derek Chauvin gets off for the murder of George Floyd, it will be a gross miscarriage of justice. Again. It'll create another situation like we saw when the cops who beat the hell of Rodney King were wrongly acquitted by a jury in Simi Valley.

Music Friday: "1999"

 There's a post on my FB friend's wall that has a picture of our wedding. One of the guys who was there said we got married in 1995. That's incorrect. We got married in 1999. 

And we partied like it too. 

Random Notes from a Crank

It seems I've gotten to a point in my life that most of the time I don't know who the musical guest is on SNL, and about half of the time I don't know who the hell the guest host is. 

I've gotten back into watching Jeopardy on a regular basis. And I've downloaded the app on my phone. So I'm getting all trivia happy. 

I recently finished Elizabeth Kolbert's Under A White Sky: The Nature of the Future. Scientists of various specialities are working hard toward trying to fashion methods for us to alter climate change. As she says in the final chapter, "But, as a rule, this enthusiasm [for their work] was tempered by doubt. The electric fish barriers, the concrete crevasse, the fake cavern, the synthetic clouds--these were presented to me less in a spirit of techno-optimism than what might be called techno-fatalism. They weren't improvements on the originals; they were the best that anyone could come up with, given the circumstances." 

After reading the book, I'm confident the people working on solar geoengineering are going to be serious players in the various sets of solutions we have to use to fight against the consequences of climate change. If policy makers let them. 

Perhaps halting donations and investments will get the attention of people who sponsor these stupid voting bills in state legislatures: "Companies Are Considering Withholding Donations and Investments Over Controversial Voting Bills in States." 

Music Friday: "Doors Unlocked and Open"

Another Music Friday post ~ another Death Cab for Cutie song. And I'm late again. Yesterday was hilatiously busy. 

Cheers.

Music Friday: "Underneath the Sycamore"

 This song has been rattling through my brain this weekend, and yes, I know I'm late with my post. 

Enjoy.